An Elegant Woman Seated in Profile Holding a Card

This is the Library's first drawing by Watteau de Lille, son and student of the painter Louis Watteau, himself a nephew of the great rococo artist Antoine. After studying in Paris he returned to Lille, succeeding his father as director of the city's school of drawing and eventually becoming assistant curator of the Musě des Beaux-Arts, Lille. The drawing is a study for an illustration in the Galerie des modes et costumes franȧis, published in 1787. The Galerie is considered the first publication devoted exclusively to fashion and was illustrated with 445 plates engraved after drawings by such artists as Pierre-Thomas Leclerc and Augustin de Saint-Aubin. Between 1784 and 1787 Watteau contributed 118 illustrations for which fewer than 30 drawings survive.